James Cameron conducted a 'scientific study' to prove Jack’s 'Titanic' death: 'He needed to die'

Ever since "Titanic" made its debut in 1997, viewers from all over the world have vehemently argued that Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Jack, could have survived. James Cameron, the filmmaker, has had enough of this notion and revealed this week that he has done a "scientific study" to disprove this theory.  According to Entertainment Weekly, the Oscar-winning movie's memorable climax saw Jack sacrificing himself by remaining in the icy water so Rose (played by Kate Winslet) could hang onto the wreckage of the titular ship. He says his heartfelt goodbyes to Rose and is soon dead from hypothermia after being in the icy seawater for so long. However, many fans claim that the two could have fit on the floating door and lived to tell the tale.

Since the movie's debut, fans, celebrities and even the "Mythbusters" crew have proposed many scenarios for how Jack could have survived. In order to finally put the issue to rest, Cameron is now working to show everyone that there was no way his hero could have made it out alive. According to Toronto Sun, Cameron addressed the matter during an interview to promote his newly-released "Avatar: The Way of Water."

He said: "We have done a scientific study to put this whole thing to rest and drive a stake through its heart once and for all. We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie and we're going to do a little special on it that comes out in February."

Cameron added: "We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate and Leo and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived. Only one could survive."

When asked whether he ever considered saving Jack, Cameron said: "No, he needed to die. It's like Romeo and Juliet. It's a movie about love and sacrifice and mortality. The love is measured by the sacrifice."

The National Geographic broadcast of Cameron's experiment will coincide with the 4k restoration re-release of "Titanic" in theatres over the Valentine's Day weekend in 2023. "Maybe... maybe... after 25 years, I won't have to deal with this anymore," the filmmaker added.

The "MythBusters" hosts did their own experiment in 2012 and gave Cameron the results, which indicated that Jack and Rose could have shared the door. However, the director was unconvinced. Speaking to The Daily Beast about their findings, he said: "They're fun guys and I loved doing that show with them, but they’re full of sh*t."

In the episode, Cameron joined "Mythbusters" hosts, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, to refute the claim of how Jack could've survived, according to Daily News. They came to the conclusion that Jack would have drowned if he had remained in the water as was represented in the film's tragic conclusion due to hypothermia.

Rose and Jack, however, might have been able to fit and balance on the board if they had been able to adjust the life jacket, they determined. To this, Cameron replied: "I think you guys are missing the point here. The script says Jack dies. He has to die! So maybe we screwed up and the board should have been a tiny bit smaller, but the dude's going down."